


If, Then, Who?

by theriveroflight



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Black Cat Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Identity Reveal, Kwami Swap, Ladrien | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Snake Adrien Agreste | Aspik, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 03:34:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28753728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight
Summary: "So if I'm Aspik, and you're Lady Noire, who has the Ladybug Miraculous?"
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 8
Kudos: 96





	If, Then, Who?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Khanofallorcs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khanofallorcs/gifts).



> happy birthday enjoy the clownery

When the Snake Miraculous ends up in his locker, it isn’t quite  _ unexpected.  _ They had planned on giving Miraculous to people who hadn’t had their identities revealed, and he’s both semi-experienced with the Snake and unexposed to the people who counted.

Well, he knows his own identity, but if Ladybug knows  _ Chat Noir  _ knows  _ Aspik’s,  _ they would be effectively screwed.

There were a lot of variables with this. Like, who could he give the Black Cat Miraculous to… 

Oh. Oh!

Adrien smirks. He’s a  _ genius,  _ honestly.

* * *

“Chat Noir asked me to give this to you. He’s out of the…powerup thingies, and he’s taking a trip away, so he wants to assign someone temporary usage.” He presents the ring.

“Oh.” She looks down at it, and turns away to mutter something he can’t hear. “Why you?”

“I’m not sure.” Adrien shrugs. He’s never been  _ great  _ at bluffing, but he can pretend. “We ran into each other before I got here. Don’t worry, he concealed his identity from me. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“Okay.” She takes a deep breath. “It won’t be a problem.” It sounds like she’s trying to reassure herself more than him. “It’s not going to be a problem.”

And he knows he said  _ never again  _ after New York, but he can’t be  _ both.  _ There’s no way that he can be both (at least, not without exposing something). He figured that out last time. So they’ll have to find something else.

“Alright, we’ll cancel for tonight then.”

“Wait, really?” he asks.

“I need to work out some things.”

“Okay, I’ll see you around then?”

* * *

He regrets it now. He  _ definitely  _ regrets that decision, because there’s no Plagg, just Sass with his infinite falsified wisdom that really  _ sucks  _ at telling him what he thinks he needs to hear. Or maybe he’s just used to Plagg’s snark. It could be either, really.

There are a lot of possibilities, really, and he’s not equipped for this.

The  _ answer,  _ of course (the easy one, that is) would be to just  _ tell  _ her, but he can’t exactly do that. If she doesn’t want to know, that’s fine. Besides, it might not be a good time right now to do it.

Well, it’s only a matter of time.

* * *

“Wait, hold on. If I’m Aspik right now, and you’re Lady Noire, then  _ who has the Ladybug Miraculous?”  _ he asks.

“Right  _ now?”  _ Lady Noire answers. “I was  _ panicking  _ and left it at home.”

“How are we supposed to—” Oh, shoot. “Um. Yeah, I’m Aspik right now, as opposed to being my civilian self.”

_ Great job, Adrien,  _ he thought to himself.  _ You really convinced Ladybug that was the truth. _

“Oh, yeah, silly me,” she responds, and honestly it does feel like  _ her.  _ “Um. Okay, I have a plan, but you’ll need to cover for me first.”

“What?”

“We need someone to yield the Ladybug Miraculous.”

“Okay,” he says, and he hops into the fray against the akuma. This is familiar, at least, if slightly different due to the weapon he’s using.

When Lady Noire comes back, she bears a box. “Aspik, do this for me.”

“You…want  _ me,  _ an  _ inexperienced temp,  _ to handle the most important Miraculous.”

“Snake and Ladybug are both important to winning, so you’ll need to stay away from me. I’ll do the heavy lifting. Just grab the Lucky Charm and I’ll work it out.” She narrows her eyes and passes him the box. “Will you?”

He’ll need to resist staying out of the fight. “I…” He takes the box. “I will.”

“Okay. The phrase is…” She whispers into his ear, and it feels delicate almost.

Alright. He can do this. He’s  _ done this before.  _ And she didn’t figure it out when he unified last time…

He goes to button the earrings into his ears, before abruptly realizing that he doesn’t really have them.

He pins them quickly into his suit. “Sass, Tikki, Unify!”

“Alright. Lucky Charm!”

A cane falls out of the sky. “Well, not my job,” he says. “Second Chance.”

And he takes up the yo-yo, because it’s at least a little better of a weapon than the lyre, and the cane goes to Lady Noire, who examines it next to her baton.

The akuma pounces, and he realizes that it has a limp. 

Lady Noire seems to realize the same thing, and offers them the cane. He snatches the akumatized object while the akuma stands still, and frees the butterfly.

It feels  _ good  _ to purify the butterfly. He doesn’t really think about it, purifying it the same way as Mister Bug. Lady Noire hands the person her baton before tossing the cane back to him to use for the Cure.

He’s tired.

“Pound it,” they say, but his words are significantly less enthusiastic.

“Hand back the Ladybug Miraculous. I think I have a solution,” she says. “I also figured something out.”

“What’s…wrong?”

“I’m fairly certain Chat wouldn’t pass the message second hand the day I recruit someone else,” she says, “so…”

“What are you saying?”

“We’ll talk later,” she answers, seemingly determined.

* * *

So they do. Talk later, that is. She’s in the Ladybug suit this time, and he isn’t wielding two Miraculous, and it feels good to be just them.

“I’m sorry, I should never have tried to give you the Snake Miraculous the first time, Adrien. After all, we always need Chat Noir, and it’s  _ my  _ fault. I was too blind…I didn’t want to see. There are so many people, and out of all of them, I happened to pick someone that was  _ already  _ another hero.”

“What?” Adrien asks. “How’d you figure it out?”

“It’s…I didn’t want to. But it can’t be taken back now.”

“So you’re just…”

“We’ll go with it. Wherever it may lead us.”

“And what about you? Do you have anything to tell?”

“My plan worked…a little too well,” she says. “I threw you off, but now you want her back.”

“...Marinette?” he asks. It’s confusing, and now he has to deal with everything, and he can’t… “I can’t deal with this, oh my gosh, what the heck.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ve…well, I’m  _ so so happy  _ it’s you. I thought it might be someone I didn’t know. And that would just be strange.”

“Why?”

“Because that meant that I really did fall in love with a mask. But there’s so much about you that reflects on both sides…I literally called you  _ everyday Ladybug.” _

She laughs. “I was so worried back then…and now, I mean I’m still worried about what could happen but what’s done is done.”

“What’s done is done, huh?” Adrien asks. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but at least we’ll be together.”

“Okay, you’ve got this,” she mutters. “Can I kiss you?”

“Yes?” he answers, and it’s a little messy but it’s there, and suddenly the Black Cat is in his hand.

“Go ahead,” she says with a smile, backing up. “Show me.”

“Alright,” he answers.

And so he does, confirming what they both already knew.


End file.
